AWF Munich-Vienna-Prague began on a Friday afternoon at
Munich central station. Our arranged meeting point was a Burger King on the
second level of the concourse, an attempted irony that was too good to pass
up.Unfortunately, there turned
out to be 2 Burger Kings in the central station… Oops.Wasn’t expecting to arrive in Munich
and find multiple BK’s in a single location.Luckily we realized the issue before long and split up the
welcoming committee to cover all bases.

Once assembled, we set out on a brief walking tour of the
downtown area.Nothing like chasing
locals through cross walks to get a group of strangers to talk to one
another.

We grabbed lunch at a beer garden amidst some scattered
showers, a reality that would become more and more regular as the days wore
on.Despite their jet lag,
everyone was in great spirits and obviously excited to have the trip finally
starting.

Our next stop was Odeonsplatz, a beautiful open square where
a quartet of amateur musicians were playing piano and violin.This felt the perfect spot to kick off
the first workout of the trip so we formed a circle of 20 around our backpacks
and started warming up.We quickly
divided into teams of 5 and distributed ourselves across a span of 20 meters
for a bodyweight relay.The
movements were as follows: walking lunge, broad jump, inch worm pushup, forward
crab walk, backward crabwalk.As
this was unfolding, we naturally attracted a crowd.It’s funny to observe the reactions of bystanders when a
group like ours starts to organize itself.At first it’s annoyance at having to adjust their vector;
then it’s curiosity as they try to predict what is about to happen; and finally
it’s astonishment that anyone would choose to exercise like that.

The intention of this WOD was more ice breaker than ass
kicker.I wanted everyone to get
used to doing things in public and in plain view of strange foreigners because
that’s what much of the trip would be for them.Turned out to be no issue at all.Everyone was totally down to get their hands dirty and make
a spectacle of themselves: REALLY good sign.

We continued our walk for about another hour then circled
back to the main station to pick up the larger luggage and head to Marco’s gym
for the evening.On the docket was
a split skill session featuring ring skills and overhead mobility followed by a
45 minute combo-WOD with the members of CrossFit Vivamus.This proved to be just about as much as
most could handle after the long flights and lack of sleep, but to everyone’s credit,
nobody quit on the workout.Highlight performances included Doug completing 5 rounds up and down the
stairs, Jeff getting 8 rounds on the KB/muscle up couplet, and Paul getting his
first non-false grip muscle up.

After the workout, we began preparing dinner on the rooftop
of the box for an evening barbeque.Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that Marco’s gym sits on the 9th
floor of a building overlooking the city and comes with full rooftop
access.The deadlift/bear crawl
couplet took place on this roof.Holler.While the food was
being prepared, members of the trip were drinking beers and socializing with
the members of the gym, getting visibly more and more comfortable with one
another.By the end of the night
everyone had been assigned a host for the weekend, providing them a place to
sleep, a travel agent, and a translator.More than anything, this was intended to give everyone a more
authentically German experience while in Munich.

The first day couldn’t have gone better in my opinion.We got some seriously hard training in,
saw enough of the city to get our feet under us, and set the tone for another
amazing adventure.